Annodata surveyed 100 IT directors at London’s HETT exhibition and found 36 per cent don’t use an MPS and of the remaining 64 per cent, 83 per cent said that they have no plans to do so.

“Left unmanaged, print costs risk spiralling out of control – especially in the healthcare sector which remains so dependent on paper-based documentation – while the management of the devices themselves is a burden on time-poor IT staff,” stated Annodata MD Andrew Harman.

A MPS is a service offered by a third party that has the specific remit of handling the firm’s document output and as such it can optimise the service to cut costs plus provide added security in the process.

“Managed print services have a great deal to offer the healthcare sector, helping IT departments to regain control over their print estates – which often consist of hundreds, sometimes thousands of devices,” Harman added.

When thinking about the most important priorities over the coming 12 months, 53 per cent stated that cost reduction is top of the list and reducing environmental impact, in second place, polled just 13 per cent, with improved security in third with 11 per cent.

“Protecting patient confidentiality and privacy is naturally extremely important for the sector, but all-too-often printers sit at the bottom of an organisation’s priorities when securing their data,” Harman warned.